Tucker Carlson: Dropping Two Nukes to End WWII Was "Prima Facie Evil"
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Tucker Carlson continues his headlong rush to the far left.
He also seems to call for denuclearization. Even better.
He showed off his newly woke philosophy for Joe Rogan, who is now certainly more rightwing than Tucker Carlson.
I love, by the way, that people on my side -- I'll just admit it, on the Right -- have spent the last 80 years defending dropping nuclear weapons on civilians. Like, are you joking? That's just, like, prima facie evil. If you can't -- 'Well, if we hadn't done that, then this, that, the other thing, that was actually a great savings' -- like, no. It's wrong to drop nuclear weapons on people, and if you find yourself arguing that it's a good thing to drop nuclear weapons on people, then you are evil. Like, it's not a tough one, right? It's not a hard call for me. So, with that in mind, like, why would you want nuclear weapons? It's like just a mindless, childish sort of intellectual exercise to justify, like, 'Oh no, it's really good because someone else could get' -- how about, no? How about spending all of your effort to prevent this from happening?
I've become less and less interested in what this conspiracy-minded wreck thinks. He's been honeydicked by Glenn Greenwald.
A lot of people support Tucker Carlson for opposing the GOP Establishment. That's great. But you know who else opposes the GOP Establishment? The far left.
And more and more of Tucker Carlson's positions are from the hard left. Nevermind his conspiratorial fascination with UFOs, which I thought was all a ratings stunt but no, he seems to really Believe.
By the end of Tucker's "evolution," he'll be telling us that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has "some serious ideas, which should be taken seriously."
I oppose the American Deep State. That means I now have to believe in... Vladimir Putin?!?
On Tucker Carlson, and some others of the right, I'm reminded of G.K. Chesterton's aphorism: "When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything." I feel like a lot of people -- and I include myself in this -- long believed in (this is embarrassing) American institutions like the FBI, CIA, judiciary, and even the corporate class. (Oh Lord...)
Now we no longer believe in those things. But, as Chesterton observed, the end of belief in some things often does not result in skepticism for everything -- it often results in the former believer seeking to believe in anything else. And for some (understandably) disappointed former righties, it results in finding new beliefs in the core dogmas of the far left.
People have a need to believe, for belief makes order of chaos, and often those who abandon beliefs fly quickly into the arms of a fresh belief system. The old beliefs may have been rejected, but the need to believe remains.
Rather than waking up and deciding to no longer believe in stupid nonsense, some, like Tucker Carlson, are on a spiritual quest to find new stupid nonsense to believe in.
Below, Tucker Carlson insists he has knowledge that the intelligence agencies are blackmailing congressmen -- but also says he can't say who's confessed to being blackmailed.
I would find this more compelling if he didn't make this announcement in the same rant in which he decries the cover-up of "UAPs" -- Unidentified Aerial Pheonomenon, which is the new term for "UFOs" so you can avoid saying "UFOs."
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Of Course: One of LA Soros DA George Gascon's Top Employees -- the Attorney "For Ethics and Integrity Operations" -- Illegally Accessed Police Files on Political Opponents
—Disinformation Expert Ace
How much degradation and brutalization by evil communists can this country withstand?
Note she illegally read the records of opponents of his former boss, who was the LA Sheriff, not the opponents of George Gascon. (Although, of course, they share the same list of enemies.)
Jen VanLaar from Red State:
One of LA County District Attorney George Gascon's top employees, Assistant District Attorney of Ethics and Integrity Operations Diana Teran, has been arrested on 11 felony charges related to the "unauthorized use of data from confidential, statutorily-protected peace officer files."
It's so Soviet that the employee in charge of criminal spying on political opponents has the title "Attorney of Ethics and Integrity Operations." Perfect.
According to a press release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Teran "accessed computer data including numerous confidential peace officer files in 2018, while working as a Constitutional Policing Advisor at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and, after joining the LADA in January 2021, impermissibly used that data at the LADA."...
Starting in June 2018, when Alex Villanueva made a good showing in the primary election for LA County Sheriff against his former boss, then-incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonnell, Teran improperly accessed and downloaded the personnel files of Villanueva and other LASD employees who supported his campaign. Sources say this was done at the direction of county Inspector General Max Huntsman, who is also currently under investigation by AG Bonta.
Teran's actions ramped up in November 2018 when underdog Villanueva unseated McDonnell, marking the first time an incumbent Sheriff lost re-election in 104 years. The weekend before Villanueva was sworn in, according to sources, Huntsman sent Teran into the Sheriff's office with an external hard drive and instructions to gather additional personnel files.
About a month after Villanueva took office he got wind of what had happened and alerted the California AG's office and the FBI. The FBI told Villanueva's office they'd provide technical assistance but there was nothing they could really do, and the AG's office gave Villanueva's office the go-ahead to investigate themselves.
Teran has been accused of political misconduct against Villaneuva before. See the article for details. But basically, Teran held off on announcing the office was not prosecuting alleged charges against Villaneuva's cops until after the election, so that the public wrongly believed he was running a dirty shop.
NY Court of Appeals Tosses Harvey Weinstein's 2020 Rape Conviction
—Disinformation Expert Ace
There's a rule that you can't put on evidence of prior "bad acts" to prove that a defendant committed the specific bad acts he's being tried for in the present case.
It's not that such evidence is completely irrelevant; it's that it's unduly prejudicial to the defendant. Such evidence tends to poison the jury against the defendant well out of proportion to the actual light it sheds on the current crime being judged at trial.
But that's what the state of New York did to get their conviction. They had some weak evidence of rape in cases where the statute of limitations hadn't run out yet, so they put on evidence from other women claiming they'd been raped (in cases where the statute of limitations had run out).
I'm not even sure how this was allowed in the first place. I assume (I haven't read much about the case) that they used the special and often-abused exemption to the "no prior bad acts" rule, the "signature" exception. Prosecutors will sometimes claim that a method of committing a crime is so specific to one individual that it constitutes a "signature" in the modus operandi, and can then put on witnesses who testify about the same M.O. being used in crimes against them.
It's often a weak and bullshitty exception: "The bank robbers wore ski masks and gloves, that's a signature." Okay it doesn't usually get that transparent, but you can see the way this rule can abused, and where a judge will allow "signature" evidence in a case The Regime is desperate to win.
Another exception, which seems to be the one used in this case, is to claim you're not putting on these witnesses to prove his prior bad acts, but to shed light on his state-of-mind he had when committing the acts he's on trial for.
The prosecution put on three witnesses to accuse Weinstein of prior rape, and claimed they weren't presenting this evidence just to show he's generally a rapist, but to prove that his state in mind in the current case was one of intent to commit a sexual assault. That is, it wasn't just a mistake where he misread the woman's level of interest in him.
But I mean, come on: You can't tell the jury "don't consider this testimony as evidence that he committed the current crime, just consider it as far as his state-of-mind." That's telling people to put the information in a special vault in their brain that they cannot access except to answer one particular question. No one's brain works like that, not even the brain of Noted "Compartmentalizer" Bill Clinton.
The toxic Regime will let every criminal out of jail to pacify one constituency. Then, when another constituency must be appeased, they'll change the rules and start presenting/allowing evidence that is plainly out-of-bounds just to convict one guy. The Regime is controlled by people who are all suffering from untreated moral breakdowns, permanently on tilt, and eager to suspend the law or change the law to to satisfy whatever moral panic they're currently in. (Trump can tell you all about that.)
Any trial that makes the news is now a political trial.
Weinstein is still in jail over a 2023 conviction for a rape in California.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction has been overturned by the New York Court of Appeals.On Thursday, the court found in a 4-3 ruling that the judge in Weinstein's trial -- a landmark moment in the #MeToo movement that the 2017 allegations against him started -- had shown prejudice by allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case. The court has now ordered a new trial.
Weinstein, the Oscar-winning producer of "Shakespeare in Love" and "Good Will Hunting," is serving a 23-year sentence at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Rome, N.Y. He will remain imprisoned as he was also convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022 and sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison. However, Weinstein was acquitted in the Los Angeles trial on charges involving a woman who testified in his New York case.
...
"We reaffirm that no person accused of illegality may be judged on proof of uncharged crimes that serve only to establish the accused's propensity for criminal behavior," wrote Judge Jenny Rivera in the court's majority opinion. "It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant's character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them."
...Judge Madeline Singas wrote in the court's dissenting opinion, "With today's decision, this Court continues to thwart the steady gains survivors of sexual violence have fought for in our criminal justice system. Forgotten are the women who bear the psychological trauma of sexual violence and the scars of testifying again, and again. This erosion of precedent, born from a refusal to accept that crimes of sexual violence are far more nuanced and complex than other crimes, comes at the expense and safety of women."
This is always the pitch: We have to break the rules to convict this defendant for political reasons.
...
At oral argument in February, Aidala maintained that Justice James Burke had stacked the deck against Weinstein by allowing three women -- Dawn Dunning, Tarale Wulff and Lauren Young -- to testify against him.
Each of the women told the jury that Weinstein had sexually assaulted them after they showed up for what they thought would be a business meeting. The so-called "Molineux" witnesses were called to show that Weinstein's assaults had a common pattern, and that he was not confused about whether or not the victims consented.
Weinstein's defense argued that the effect of the testimony, however, was to attack his character without shedding any light on the allegations for which he was actually charged.
"This is major prejudice," Aidala argued in February. "It's saying, 'He's a bad guy. He's a bad guy. He's a bad guy.'"
...
The issue of "prior bad acts" testimony was also raised in Bill Cosby's successful appeal of his sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania. In that case, five women were allowed to testify to buttress the one allegation that was charged. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned that conviction on different grounds, finding that prosecutors had reneged on a promise not to prosecute Cosby.
A Secret Service Agent Assigned To Kumala Harris Physically Attacks the Special Agent In Charge of the Detail, While Armed;
There Were Reportedly "DEI Concerns" About How This Agent Was Hired
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Tom Rogan @TomRtweetsScooplet- An armed U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris's protective detail fought unarmed with other detail agents on Monday morning. The incident occurred at Andrews AFB, shortly before Harris arrived.
Susan Crabtree @susancrabtreeBREAKING: Sources within the Secret Service community tell me the agent assigned to VP Kamala Harris was armed during the fight - that the gun was secured in the agent's holster until other agents physically restrained the agent and took the gun from the agent's possession.
I'm also told there are DEI concerns among the USSS community about the hiring of this agent. Other agents and officers within the USSS are asking questions about the agent's hiring process, whether the USSS did enough to look into the agent's background and monitor the agent's mental well-being because there have been widespread concerns about other strange behavior before this incident. For now, I am also withholding the agent's name.
Other details: Sources say the agent in question was acted erratically upon showing up for a traveling shift at Joint Base Andrews. The agent ended up tackling the Senior Agent in Charge of the VP detail, got on top of him and started punching him. At this point, I'm told, the agent who was attacking the SAIC did indeed have a gun, but it was in the holster. Other agents are expressing relief that the agent did not shoot the SAIC.
Can no one position Kamala Harris for success?
An armed U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris's protective detail fought unarmed with other detail agents on Monday morning.The incident occurred at the Washington, D.C.-area Andrews Air Force Base, before Harris arrived, and after the agent suffered what the Secret Service has characterized as a medical incident. The Washington Examiner is aware of the agent's name and specific detail responsibilities but is withholding those details for privacy reasons.
The Washington Examiner understands that the agent became aggressive with other agents. When the special agent in charge and a detail shift supervisor attempted to calm the agent, a physical altercation ensued. The agent was handcuffed before being withdrawn from service for medical assessment.
Yup. As planned:
Butterscotch @Butters09016449Every institution is cracking.
Unexpectedly, Dow Drops Over 600 Unexpected Points After GDP Unexpectedly Flatlines to Unexpectedly Low 1.6%
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Stocks tumbled Thursday after the latest U.S. economic data showed a sharp slowdown in growth and pointed to persistent inflation.The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 611 points, or 1.6%, weighed down by steep declines in Caterpillar and IBM. The S&P 500 dropped 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.7%.
U.S. gross domestic product expanded 1.6% in the first quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast GDP growth would come in at 2.4%.
And inflation surged, too:
Along with the downbeat growth rate for the quarter, the report showed consumer prices increased at a 3.4% pace, well above the previous quarter's 1.8% advance. This raised concern over persistent inflation and put into question whether the Federal Reserve will be able to cut rates anytime soon.
This may sound bad to you, but don't worry, the Washington Post's "journalist" says this is "very solid" growth we should all be pleased by.
Note that "solid" growth is usually thought to be 3% or higher and "very solid" would be 3.5% or 4.0%.
But now 1.6% growth, which we all know is a snapshot of a falling line and we'll probably be at near-0% next quarter, is "very solid" because we have to all pull together and drag this evil rotten-brained husk of a rapist across the finish line again.
It increased by a negative amountPosted by: Lemmiwinks
The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition
—CBD
Who could possibly have predicted this shockingly unexpected result of increasing labor costs via government mandate? The idea that if wages go up, demand for workers will decrease and the price of goods and services will increase is insane! No economist could have foreseen this Black Swan event! There is simply no experience anywhere in history that would predict this.
Our legislators and the professional staff that supports them are, of course, expert in all facets of economics, and have a sound understanding of basic economic laws. I am confident that they are just as surprised as the companies they are driving out of business and the formerly employed casual workers who now have no jobs.
Seattle takeout orders have reached a breaking point. Amid horror stories of $122 Thai delivery and $26 to-go coffees, the Emerald City is now considering rolling back a brand new wage law that’s causing food takeout prices to skyrocket and delivery orders to tank. It's just the latest in a series of wage laws that are backfiring this year, causing chaos for customers, restaurants, and the gig workers they were meant to help.
The true minimum wage is $0.00/hr, and any other mandated wage distorts the labor markets. That is fact. Governments have been playing fast and loose with immutable economic laws for centuries, and while they are expert at obfuscation, they cannot hide the undeniable fact of their missteps, because the data are screaming in everyone's faces!
Every minimum wage law, every legal restriction on the free exchange of capital for goods and labor restrains the natural growth of an economy. That's the obvious first order effect. But there are even more malign ones that do not appear for years. teenagers can't get summer jobs when the minimum wage is higher than their labor is worth. Who wants to pay some pimply-faced 16-year old $20/hour to push a broom around or flip burgers? So that work experience is lost to him, never to be recovered. Companies on the margin of profitability will fail, and companies that are someone's life's dream will never be created because the artificial labor market -- courtesy of our legislators who never worked an honest day in their entitled lives -- has priced them out.
Maybe that would have been the next Apple or Lincoln Electric or Carnegie Steel.
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]
The Morning Report — 4/25/24
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning, kids. First, a big thanks to Mis Hum for filling in yesterday. Not going to go into detail about my situation except to say that I'm neither better nor worse than before the consult. In the coming weeks, I might be absent for a few days here and there, hopefully no longer than that and not on a continuing basis. As always, your prayers and words of encouragement are appreciated more than you can know. We'll muddle through somehow.
Now, back to the meshugas of upside down world . . .
Well, we've established that the GOP – Grifting Oleaginous Parasites – are not the stupid party but are in fact stooges/pawns/confederates of the Uniparty playing the role in the ongoing kabuki-bukkake theatre of "opposition." With the latest maddening sell-out by Mike Johnson, who is turning out to be the Paul Ryan of Kevin McCarthy's, insofar as sending billions of dollars to Ukraine, and whatever minimal pittance to Israel (of course I support Israel, and dollars sent there as opposed to virtually anywhere else on the planet would actually do some good in terms of its and our own security, but that's for another time) while doing nothing to stop the border invasion, you want to tear your hair out.
In point of fact, the $61 billion sent to Ukraine would build the wall several times over. Even better would be stripping the IRS of the 80,000 new agents and using the money to fund 80,000 CBP/INS agents to round up and deport every damned wetback who's on our soil and returning them from whence they came. But the duplicity aside, perhaps stupidity shouldn't be discounted out of hand:
The estimable Raheem Khassam probably said it best:
“When the enemy is making a false movement, we must take good care not to interrupt him,” so said Napoleon at one of the critical junctures of the Battle of Waterloo. Today it is commonly written as: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”With that in mind: what the fuck is Mike Johnson doing? No, not with his predictable capitulation to the defense industry. That move was obvious as the day is long. What’s more stunning is his bizarre trip to Columbia University on Wednesday, where he squeaked into a microphone, drowned out by cacophonous students chanting – doubtless to their chagrin (and ignorance) – in agreement with Steve Bannon of late: “Mike you suck! Mike you suck!”
Johnson’s completely arbitrary trip to New York is the very definition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. An issue that was completely at the feet of Joe Biden and the fools in his foreign policy apparatus now appears – at best – as a “uniparty” issue, and at worst, as a scenario where the GOP is running interference for neoconservatism like its 2003. . .
. . . Why is it yours, my, or Mike Johnson’s job to save them from themselves? Simply speaking: it ain’t.And what happens when the Columbia University President refuses to resign, as Johnson demanded? The faculty will frame it as defiance against Republicans on Capitol Hill and by proxy (though you and I might know it’s not true), Donald Trump. . .
. . . So I ask you again: what the fuck was Mike Johnson doing? When Biden’s White House is under continuous fire from its once-believed “baked-in” voters. To interrupt your enemy when he’s making a false move? The height of narcissism and folly. And dare I suggest, perhaps intentional?"
Thanks, Raheem. I needed that last sentence to disabuse me of the notion that they're stupid. Stupid though as it seems at first glance, it does indeed seem that this GOP is intentionally trying to sabotage Trump and other Republicans, MAGAns or RINOs, from gaining control this November.
Then again, as we have all postulated what do elections really mean in a nation that is now so top-to-bottom corrupt both in and outside of government, that they can be stolen now openly with zero repercussions? Where kangaroo courts, as well as private institutions such as banks and media platforms, are running pell-mell to destroy political opposition, be it from the most prominent leaders to lowly citizens?
Worst of all, we have schools that have not only poisoned the minds of at least three generations of children to hate their country, their heritage, their parents and even themselves? Where scores of them are now ready, willing and able to commit acts of violence at the drop of a hat. Or yarmulke?
A Jewish Yale University student was jabbed in [near] the eye with a flag pole by an anti-Israel protester on Saturday night, Sophomore Sahar Tartak told The Jerusalem Post.Tartak, a history student and editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press, had attempted to film the pro-Palestinian protest encampment that had been set up on the campus.
The visibly religious Jewish student and her friend were immediately met with a wall of five activists each, who did not allow them to pass.
“One of them takes their Palestinian flag and waves it in my face and then jabs it in the face,” said Tartak.
Tartak reported the assault to campus police, but she is unaware of any action taken besides calling an ambulance for her. The student went to the hospital, but was discharged and will not suffer permanent damage. Mentally, however, Tartak said that she was in an “awful” state.
Why did the campus police not seek to arrest the student who hit her in the face with a flagpole? Will the university now investigate the matter, and determine who that student was, so that he, or she, can be subject to appropriate discipline, including expulsion from Yale?
Sahar Tartak is now fearful of returning to the Yale campus, since these pro-Hamas demonstrators now know who she is and may seek her out for violent retribution for reporting the flagpole attack to the police, especially if the perpetrator is indeed discovered and prosecuted.
Out of control New York University protesters swarmed and berated an NYPD chief and his officers – calling them “f–king fascists” – after they cuffed one of the demonstrators at an anti-Israel rally, wild new video shows.The viral video, shared on X, shows NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy and his officers being chased and surrounded by protestors on Monday night while trying to get inside the NYU Catholic Center after arresting one of them.
“F–k you! F–k you, pigs,” the crowd could be heard shouting as they harassed the officers and demanded they release the woman in custody.
Mccarthy is seen attempting to get inside the NYU Catholic Center, but couldn't open the door. He eventually finds an unlocked door around the corner. . .
. . . The wild incident occurred when the NYPD was called in to clear out the campus encampment set up at NYU on Monday night, with more than 100 protesters arrested.
The students had created their own “tent city” in solidarity with the sprawling encampment set up at Columbia University, with NYU students demanding their own school divest holdings tied to Israel over the war in Gaza.
During Monday night’s clash with police, some protesters pelted NYPD officers with bottles as they worked to clear the encampment, with one demonstrator hitting a cop in the head with a chair, the NYPD said.
If I want to be positive, most of these bastards will be descending on Chicago this summer to "attend" the Democrat National Convention. Although it's small consolation that they'll be mindlessly shrieking at Democrats, I suspect quite a few synagogues in the Windy City might have their walls covered in swastikas, if not firebombed. All in the name of "coexistence."
On the downside, how else can the Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants/Kalorama Klown Komintern stab Israel in the heart to try and appease them beforehand?
Democrats have already made it clear that they will stop at nothing – nothing – to prevent Donald Trump from winning in November. So, we aren’t surprised to read reports that President Joe Biden might declare a “climate emergency” this year in hopes that it gooses his reelection odds. Never mind that such a declaration would put the U.S. right on the path to a Venezuela-style future.Late last week, Bloomberg reported that “White House officials are weighing whether to declare a national climate emergency several months out from the 2024 election.”
. . . Let’s leave aside the entirely fatuous notion that there is anything even remotely constituting a climate “emergency.” What would be the basis for such a declaration? The number of hurricanes, fires, floods? None of these has been trending upward. Death rates from natural disasters are a tiny fraction of what they were 60 years ago, and lower than they were 20 years ago. Food production is way up. . .
. . . As we just learned from the three-year COVID national emergency, the left will eagerly use a climate emergency declaration to strip Americans of basic rights.
Whatever you think of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he is one of the few who has been outspoken about the dangers the COVID precedent set.
“We’ve now established a precedent in this country – they suspended the First Amendment: religion; freedom of association when they did the lockdowns,” he told Fox News.
“[They restricted] freedom of speech. They banned jury trials against vaccine companies – that’s [a violation of] the Seventh Amendment. They abolished property rights [which violates the] Fifth Amendment [when] they closed 3.3 million businesses with no due process, no just compensation, although there was no pandemic exception in the United States Constitution.”
Way back in 1973, a Senate report noted that emergency declarations give the president the ability to “seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens.”
. . . Declaring a climate emergency would give Biden the ability to control anything that uses energy – which means literally all human activity – in the name of fighting this emergency.
If Biden were to declare a “climate emergency” and if – God forbid – it helps him win reelection, there will be little hope for the future of this nation.
And if by some miracle the majority of American-Americans say "Hell no!" to this, the little monsters on campuses nationwide terrorizing Jews will be unleashed, unbound, and will come after us for threatening Mother Earth.
Picture Greta Thunberg in a Palestinian terror towel wielding a Molotov Cocktail. Times tens of thousands. Of course, Jews will be targeted first because capitalism is destroying the planet.
Remember: given everything going on today, we are all Jews now.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- "Declaring a 'climate emergency' would put the U.S. right on the path to a Venezuela-style future."
Is Biden About To Declare Himself Climate Dictator?
- "A new book examines weaknesses in China’s meritocratic system—and in our own."
Meritocracy and the Great Power Competition
- "Communist societies have a long history of imprisoning political dissidents in psychiatric wards."
Marxist Health Officials Want You Committed
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Daily Tech News 25 April 2024
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- President Biden has carried out his ceremonial duties as pudding-in-chief and smeared the TikTok divest-or-die bill into law. (The Verge)
Huzzah, I guess.
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Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (4/24/24
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
Quote I‘It really is appalling behaviour. I am at a loss. Both of you talk about it as if it was a beloved family pet. What an example you are showing to your children about what love is.’
Judge Roy BeanJudge Christine Laing KC
Quote II“That’s what you get for $68,000 a year at Columbia — an administration who cowers in the face of thugs and bullies, and a university president who would rather make your kids try to learn off campus, than take a truly hard line with those students calling for the murder of Jews,” Mike Rowe
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White Devil Alec Baldwin Cafe
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Streets of Barcelona
by @yeraysg
Kitten shows dog who runs this cell-block, bitch.
Trapped in a glass case of emotions.
Ladies, if you put it out there, you're going to draw some interest from mashers.
Anyone with a fear of spiders obviously hasn't yet enjoyed the beauty of a snake giving birth. As I always say, nature is fucking gross.
A dinner cruise in Antarctica's Drake Passage. (In? On? At?)
Octopus disguises itself as a big dangerous predator.
Not all heroes wear capes but the real ones do.
They should install these in San Francisco so that the homeless can shit in the outdoors without inconveniencing the normal people. Who don't exist in San Francisco so forget I said anything.
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Quick Hits
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Steven Kruiser writes that it's the "adults" at the Failure Factories formerly known as elite colleges who are to blame for their students' sick worldview.
As evidence, he cites this from Rick Moran:
The most serious confrontations between police and protesters did not feature idealistic, earnest 19- and 20-year-olds, but rather 40- and 50-something faculty members who acted like a bunch of spoiled brats."The faculty were -- from what I personally observed, and spoke to lieutenants and captains out there -- the most aggressive towards the police," NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry told Fox 5. "They would not move, they would not let go."
Reliving the glories of their youth, no doubt. That and showing off for the kids, trying to be role models, and setting an example of lawbreaking.
"I think parents have an expectation that when they send their kids to college the faculty and their professors will be teaching and not protesting," said Tarik Sheppard, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. "It was shocking to see the faculty out there."
And this from Robert Spencer:
The New York Post on Thursday published video of a man wearing a kippah and with an Israeli flag draped over his shoulders passing by a crowd of protesters at Columbia. One young man shouted at him, "Keep it moving, you Zionist pig!" A few moments later, the man with the Israeli flag, responding to something that was said to him, asks, "Hamas is okay?" To that, a woman with a keffiyeh over her head and covering her mouth bangs on a metal crowd-control barrier and shouts furiously, "We are Hamas!"Another supporter of Israel asks her, "You're what? You're Hamas?" as she keeps banging on the barrier. She responds while continuing to bang on the barrier, "Yes, we're all Hamas, pig!" Another protester adds, "Long live Hamas!"
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The Alec Baldwin Harassment Incident Just Got Weirder
—Disinformation Expert Ace
As you know, a very annoying woman harassed Alec Baldwin, demanding that he say "Free Palestine." When he didn't, she started calling him a killer, which is true enough but she's very, very annoying.
He ultimately slapped the phone out of her hand. Actually, it looks like a full assault.
That's not going to help his defense in the negligent homicide trial for killing a woman.
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Journ-O-List 2.0: Fake Reporters "Covering" the Trump Trials Get Together on Weekly Zoom Calls to Coordinate Their Biased Stories
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Byron York points out that the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Trump trials, by CNN and MSNBC, are mostly filled with "talk" from commentators, as there's not nearly enough news per hour to fill the time.
Would you be surprised to hear that all of this talk pushes Soros DA's theories of made-up law?
As far as the TV talk is concerned, we might be heading into another "collusion" cycle, referring to the time in 2017-2018 in which some of these same news organizations devoted thousands of hours to discussing allegations that Trump conspired with Russia to fix the 2016 election....If you're following the trial, you might notice that a lot of the commentary sounds alike. Many of the people who talked their way through the collusion cycle have jumped on to the false bookkeeping "election interference" train and tend to say the same things that their colleagues are saying. There's a reason for some of that uniformity.
On Tuesday, Politico published a story revealing the existence of a weekly Zoom call that includes "some of the country's most well-known legal and political commentators." The call is "an exclusive weekly digital salon," Politico's Ankush Khardori wrote, "whose existence has not been previously reported, for prominent legal analysts and progressive and conservative anti-Trump lawyers and pundits. Every Friday, they meet on Zoom to hash out the latest twists and turns in the Trump legal saga -- and intellectually stress-test the arguments facing Trump on his journey through the American legal system."
The key phrase is "anti-Trump." When group members stress-test arguments, they're trying to find the arguments that will be most effective in bringing down Trump. That's what it is about.
The group includes names you will recognize if you watch CNN or MSNBC a lot: Andrew Weissmann, George Conway, Bill Kristol, Norm Eisen, Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade, Joyce White Vance, Jennifer Rubin, Mary McCord, Harry Litman, Elliot Williams, Asha Rangappa, Norm Ornstein, Renato Mariotti, Shan Wu, Ryan Goodman, Karen Agnifilo, Jeffrey Toobin, and more.
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And so on. Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, called the group "the perfect emblem of today's Trump-media-legal-industrial complex." The long effort to topple Trump has become a career for some. "For them, this is a unique opportunity to ... obtain a level of public recognition and stature that few lawyers can ever attain," Khardori wrote. "The people on this call ... are essential cogs in that system, helping to generate and shape content for Trump-hungry consumers."In other words, the call is a strategic tool that can help participants bring down Trump and get famous, too. Win-win! But it's not something participants want to talk about. Indeed, Khardori said he reached out for comment to everyone whose name was mentioned in the story, and "none spoke on the record." Some apparently talked to Khardori off the record, but they had to remain anonymous because they had promised the group to keep the Zoom sessions a secret.
Related: Believe all womens.
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Released Emails Show Biden's White House Conspiring With Bureaucrats to Force the Documents Issue
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Just the News:
Just weeks after learning Joe Biden had improperly retained government documents, his administration began working with federal bureaucrats in spring and fall 2021 to increase pressure on Donald Trump for similar issues and eventually prompt a criminal prosecution of the 45th president, according to government memos newly unsealed by a federal judge.
The correspondence, released this week by U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida, provide the the most extensive accounting so far of how the Biden White House worked with federal bureaucrats to escalate pressure on Trump to return documents to the National Archives even as it slow-walked similar issues involving its own boss.
One email dated May 5, 2021, shows the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had already consulted the Biden White House about missing Trump records, more than a year before the public would learn that the former president president had kept some classified memos.
"I have had several conversations with [Person 40] since the end of the Trump Administration about various paper records that he believes were not transferred to us," NARA General Counsel Gary Stern wrote to his colleagues in one May email.
"Person 40" was not identified by name in the document but was listed as working for the Biden White House in the Records Management Office, according to a motion filed by Trump's lawyers in the case, which was previously redacted.
On August 30, 2021, NARA Archivist David Ferriero began to press Trump records representatives more explicitly about the documents, vowing to make referrals to "the Hill, DOJ, and the White House" if the documents had been destroyed or where not turned over soon."As you have seen in the press, the House has requested records," Ferriero writes in one email chain. "Our ability to respond requires access to the 24 boxes which have yet to be accounted for. At this point, I am assuming that they have been destroyed. In which case, I am obligated to report it to the Hill, DOJ, and the White House."
By September 2021, Stern had decided to draft a criminal referral against Trump to the Justice Department after documents were still not returned, according to an FBI interview summary with a NARA employee, identified as "Person 53" in the court documents."Stern approached [Per. 53] to formally draft a letter to DOJ raising concerns about PRA materials from the TRUMP administration which remained unaccounted for by NARA," the FBI memo stated.
In his interview with the FBI, Person 53 noted in his "years of experience," he "understood NARA never had to make such a referral to DOJ...to accomplish such an ask."
When he circulated the draft letter internally, Stern told colleagues he had been in contact with "DOJ counsel" about the matter and was continuing to communicate with the White House Counsel's Office, showing the Biden administration was in the loop about the efforts to repossess Trump's documents.
"In addition, [White House] Counsel is now also aware of the issue, and has asked that I keep them in the loop to the extent that we make any reference to the White House Office of Records Management," Stern wrote in the email.
While NARA and the White House were engaging DOJ on Trump, Biden aides were trying to figure out what to do with memos Biden kept at his University of Pennsylvania Biden Center office in Washington, some which turned out to be classified.
Hey guys, this all looks shady, but remember, they're Saving Democracy by weaponizing the government's intelligence and "law" enforcement arms against political opponents.
Hamas Releases Disgusting Propaganda Video of American Hostage Forced to Read Pro-Hamas Statement -- His Arm Missing Due to Hamas' Attacks on Him
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Hamas are savages. Their minds cannot even conceive of civilization, or what a civilized man's thoughts might be.
Proof of that is this video -- which Hamas chose to release, thinking that a literal Hostage Video of a man maimed by their terror attacks will sway opinion in their favor.
Can't wait to hear Sandy Cortez explain that this now-maimed man lost his arm due to his own colonizer sins.
Hamas has released a propaganda video featuring one of the American hostages it holds. In it, Hersh Goldberg-Polin is seen reading a pre-prepared script blaming Israel for October 7th and everything that has transpired since.
Golberg-Polin was taken captive at the Nova Music festival that Hamas attacked, slaughtering hundreds of people in the process. He can be seen missing his arm in the video, an injury he sustained that day at the hands of the terrorists after they threw grenades into a shelter he was in.
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Biden Slurs His Way Through a Shpeech About Funding His Paymaters In Ukraine
Update: At Fundraiser, Biden Accidentally Reads Aloud the Scripted Stage Directions
—Disinformation Expert Ace
He immediately signed the bill into law, then let his Ukranian masters know that the Biden Brand is all about prompt service.
Joe Biden delivered remarks on Wednesday on Iran and Israel, and the passage of the bill that gives supplemental aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.Of course, because it's Joe Biden, most of the comments centered around his priority -- Ukraine.
Incredibly, he claims we're "investing in our own industrial base" by giving our stores away to Ukraine because we have to replenish it. We wouldn't have to spend that amount if he didn't give our stores away.
Biden claimed they were trying to surge aid now so as not to drag the U.S. into a war in the future if Putin attacked a NATO country. But we are already involved in this war, with a seemingly endless supply of money/weapons going out to Ukraine, with no goal set that would signify the end of our involvement.
He noted the bill was also sending aid to Israel. Even with the teleprompter, he had difficulty, slurring and dropping words in what he had to say.
He tripped all over himself, trying to talk about the allies who helped against the Iran attack.
He is senile:
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Senate Passes Ukraine Funding Bill
—Disinformation Expert Ace
The Senate has passed a substantial $95 billion aid package to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan overcoming strong internal dissent and delays within the GOP-led House.Key Details:
The bill received overwhelming Senate approval with a 79-18 vote, backed by majorities from both parties despite some vocal opposition.
The package includes $61 billion for Ukraine, $15 billion for Israel, and measures to address Chinese influence, notably involving TikTok.
Critics like Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) expressed dissatisfaction, citing concerns over prioritizing foreign borders over American needs.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate passed a significant $95 billion emergency aid bill aimed at bolstering the defense capabilities of Ukraine and Israel, marking a pivotal moment in U.S. foreign policy amid contentious debates. The aid package, designed to address several international and security concerns, passed with a substantial majority, signaling strong bipartisan support despite notable opposition within both parties.
..."I think we've turned a corner on the isolationist movement," Senator Mitch McConnell said about the aid bill passage.
Joe Biden will give a Shpeech -- he doesn't give speeches any longer, only shpeeches -- at 3:45pm.
The Senate also passed a bill mandating the sale of TikTok to non-Chinese-state-security owners.
In a significant move by U.S. lawmakers, Congress has passed a bill that presents the most substantial challenge to TikTok's operations in the United States to date, aiming to address long-standing national security concerns associated with the app's Chinese ownership. The legislation mandates that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, either sell the app or face a national ban, a decision backed by substantial bipartisan support and reflecting years of mounting scrutiny over the app's data privacy practices.The bill's passage marks a culmination of efforts to legislate against the perceived risks posed by Chinese technology companies, with TikTok in the spotlight due to its massive user base and cultural influence in the U.S. Critics of the app, including key Senate and House leaders, have argued that ByteDance's ownership could allow the Chinese government undue access to the personal data of American citizens, a claim TikTok has repeatedly contested.
Wednesday Morning Rant
—Joe Mannix
"Republican In Name Only" has been a pejorative for about as long as I've been politically aware. I remember it being bandied about often during the Bush 43 Administration, and less often but still commonly during the Clinton Administrations, when it was apparently first attested in print. It's been in use for an entire generation now, and been in frequent use for more than 20 years.
It remains evergreen despite the arrival of new and even more hostile appellations like "C*ckservative" (I'm not sure if that one will cause advertising grief in the main post, so apologies for the asterisk) that are also quite popular. Something about "RINO" just works and so it remains popular. It has an "X-factor" as far as political insults go and I doubt it will ever leave common parlance. That's too bad, really, because it should - or at very least, it should stop being an insult and become a compliment.
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Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]
—Open Blogger
Lonely Dwelling
Alfons Walde
Lonely Dwelling is a view of the Tyrolean Alps of Austria. The first thing I noticed about it is its texture. The mountain in the background is craggy and rocky, with high, steep cliffs created by Walde’s application of thick, heavy paint. It is caked on in a way that makes the work look three-dimensional, shaping the surfaces and creating sharp edges and deep crevasses. The artist sculpted this picture, not just painted it. In art, this technique is called impasto.
Along with impasto, Walde also uses chiaroscuro, a heavy use of contrasts between highlight and shadows, usually for dramatic effect. In a piece as quiet as this however, chiaroscuro is used instead to shape and define some objects and frame others. Look back at the blue mountain in the center and the buildings on the edges. There are no clouds allowing strong sunlight. The sun is also low in the sky — either mid-morning or mid-afternoon. This creates long, dark shadows and bright highlights. On the mountain, the blacks work with the thick paint to visually build up the crags and boulders even more. The mountain is solid, massive, and steep, and towers over the dwelling.
Walde’s use of steel-blue creates the illusion that the mountain is in the far distance. Called atmospheric perspective, this technique implies great distances in art and creates an illusion of depth on flat surfaces. Notice how the mountain fills the background even though it’s far away. Walde emphasizes the massiveness of the mountain. In the foreground, the deep black shadows frame the bright mountain and draw my attention to it even more.
Another trait of atmospheric perspective is as an object recedes into the distance, it will get hazier because the air diffuses light passing through it. Here the mountain is crisp and clear, however. Walde might be trying to convey thin air and high altitude. To me, this implies a physical toughness in the people that live here.
In contrast, the foreground is occupied by two plain buildings and two small figures – all painted in browns and black. Here too, Walde’s impasto sculpts and defines the buildings. Almost windowless, the houses seem roughly constructed. Walde’s brown paint creates a plastered-on effect on the outer walls, like a wattle-and-daub or adobe-type construction. To me, this makes the buildings look simple and rough and unassuming. A clue into the lifestyle and personalities of the people who choose to live here.
The mother and child are interesting. Walde painted this family in the same black and tans as the buildings, except for a small, blue cloth on the mother’s lap, the same blue as in the mountain. I think Walde is trying to create visual connections between the Tyrolian people and their region through color. He uses chiaroscuro to shape them. Rather than human forms, they seem to be constructed from blocks and without the heavy shadows, I think these figures would look flat and lifeless and might get lost within the painting. The chiaroscuro gives them mass and dimension.
Walde uses texture, color, and light to define the rough and rugged terrain, and through that, its people. Walde was Tyrolese himself. His later career focused on bright and positive depictions of this region, advertising its virtues and features, and portraying its people. I think his hometown-pride shows in works like this.
